Welcome to the SEAL community!
Social and emotional learning helps children and young people to:
‘… learn how to communicate their feelings, set themselves goals and work towards them, interact successfully with others, resolve conflicts peaceably, control their anger and negotiate their way through the many complex relationships in their lives today and tomorrow’.
This kind of learning underpins positive behaviour and attitudes to learning, personal development and mental health and wellbeing. It is at the heart of PSHE, relationships and health education.
Research shows it also helps raise attainment. Social and emotional learning is attracting increasing attention in schools. On this website you will find age-related teaching resources and whole school frameworks to support your work.
Many of them come from the national ‘Social and emotional Learning’ (SEAL) initiative. By registering with us (which is free, quick and easy), you can immediately find and download all of the national SEAL curriculum materials and teacher guidance. There’s a progression in learning objectives that can be used in any school, and training materials if you want to introduce or refresh a whole-school SEAL approach. Click on National Resources then click the Getting Started with SEAL tab.
If you would like regularly updated teaching resources, you can also join our SEAL Community. Set up and supported by leading experts in the field, the SEAL Community is a not-for-profit organisation which aims to promote and develop SEAL through sharing news, practice, resources and expertise. Joining costs £30 for individuals, £75 for schools/settings and £100 for local authorities or other multi-school organisations. Click here to join
News update
Help build the #EmpathyGeneration Empathy Week, the global initiative for schools, will be back for a fifth year from 26th February - 1st March 202
Calls to Childline from children under 11 struggling with loneliness have risen by 71 per cent in just five years, latest data shows.
Children and young people who feel safe in school, enjoy coming to school, and that they belong in school were less likely to have a mental disorde
Sharing practice
Y1 children at Pembroke Dock Community School read the fantastic text ‘The Invisible’ , by Tom Percival, which is great for work on empathy
Last year a group of London schools worked together on a project to tackle social, emotional and mental health needs.
One school in the US has turned a room into a brilliant social and emotional learning centre.
Eight schools in the Pentrehafod cluster in Swansea (seven primary, one secondary) did some great work with the organisation EmpathyLab.
RULER is a well-researched American SEL programme which uses four main tools: a class or school Charter, a Mood Meter, tools to m
Resource roundup
Brilliant new resources to develop empathy skills and support anti-hate discussions, and to help children learn how to be good listeners
New ideas and resources here for the SEAL themes about setting goals, persistence, resilience, confidence
Practical tools
Help children understand that ‘we have more in common than that which divides us’ by playing Just Like Me:
We came across a new metaphor for explaining to children how the brain works and really liked it. It goes like this.
New research
This study investigated the effects of a 3E (early prevention, early identification, early intervention) social and emotional lea
In 2023, several major reports added to the long-standing evidence base for social and emotional learning.
You may have heard of the ‘marshmallow experiment’ which tested young children’s ability to delay gratification.
Top resource
In I Really Want to Shout by Simon Philip, a little girl uses witty and insightful rhyme to tell us about the things that make her angry...
In this book by Kate Milner, a young boy discusses the journey he is about to make with his mother...
This is the Education Endowment Foundation's guidance report...
